The Long Beach City Council directed staff to write up an ordinance creating additional protections for renters facing substantial rehabilitation evictions at its Tuesday, Dec. 7 meeting.
Among the newly-approved protections:
- Landlords can face civil fines of up to $15,000, payable to their tenant, if a civil court finds that the landlord intentionally violated the City’s just-cause for eviction ordinance—meaning they issued an invalid eviction notice for substantial rehabilitation.
- Property owners must notify the City when they terminate a tenancy for substantial rehabilitation construction work. (This will help the City collect its first-ever concrete dataset on these evictions.)
- Landlords must give tenants a 90-day notice to vacate for any no-fault just cause eviction or termination of tenancy.
- Landlords must provide tenants with permanent relocation benefits of either $4,500 or the equivalent of two month’s rent, whichever is higher. (Previously, landlords only had to give one month’s rent.)
An overview of substantial rehabilitation
Substantial rehabilitation runs the gamut of quality-of-life improvements. A unit may have asbestos, have mold, need infrastructural improvements or require the removal of hazardous materials.
Any kind of substantial modification—structural, electrical, plumbing or mechanical that requires a permit and takes at least 30 days—can be used as a just-cause for eviction under the Tenant Protection Act of 2019.
But in Long Beach, some landlords made aesthetic changes to their units and claimed substantial rehabilitation as a means of evicting the tenants.
These include painting exteriors of buildings, changing cabinets, installing new tiles, removing floorboards—all illegal reasons for eviction under the TPA.
Tenant protection groups in Long Beach have long called for the removal of substantial rehabilitation from the City’s just-cause ordinance altogether.
But 82% of Long Beach’s housing stock was built before 1980. And buildings require major renovations at year 30 and more frequently after year 50.
71% of Long Beach’s housing stock is over 50 years old, according to City staff, meaning substantial rehabilitation is needed to preserve existing housing stock.
In February 2020, advocates won an amendment that requires landlords to attach building permits and plans to all eviction notices for substantial rehabilitation to prevent owners from using false pretenses to maneuver around the law.
In July 2021, the council established a temporary moratorium on substantial remodel lease terminations and evictions through Dec. 31 of this year.
City staff expects to present an ordinance with the newly-approved protections before the end of February 2022, which will then come to the council for a vote.
In the meantime, tenants facing substantial rehabilitation-related evictions will be protected by a moratorium until Feb. 28, 2022, which can be extended if the ordinance is not complete by that time.
Council votes against stronger protections due to lack of data, cost of implementation
The council had the choice of adding additional protections, such as the creation of a Tenant Habitability Program (THP) similar to Los Angeles’s.
The program would provide oversight to residential rehabilitation projects, a move meant to deter illegal evictions stemming from substantial rehabilitation projects.
The cost of the program was estimated at $2 million annually. Given the impacts of COVID-19 to the City’s bottom line, council members agreed that such a program would be financially infeasible for the time being.
A THP could also cause a trick-down effect on tenants, City staff wrote, as landlords would be responsible for some of the program’s costs.
Since Long Beach has no existing infrastructure for the program, the costs of the program would be higher than Los Angeles and other jurisdictions, the City wrote—potentially deterring landlords from completing substantial repairs on their properties.
“It’s just impossible for us to be able to finance any kind of new program to see if it’s worth $2 million dollars or even more,” Councilmember Roberto Uranga said.
During public comment, tenant rights groups encouraged councilmembers to create a THP—a compromise that would allow rehabilitation with City oversight. For years, these groups have advocated for an intervention program between landlords and tenants to prevent evictions.
Councilmembers were hesitant to approve a THP because, along with associated costs, the City has no data on substantial rehabilitation evictions.
“Why isn’t the City collecting data that is related to a majority of our residents, who happen to be renters?” said Leanna Noble, interim director of Long Beach Residents Empowered.
Deputy Director of Development Services Christopher Koontz said that the City has no current reporting requirement on evictions, nor do they have a right to data from other entities.
The data-collecting portion of Tuesday’s motion will help inform the City of the extent of the problem.
During public comment, tenant advocates were also warm to an alternative to the THP: a combination of the approved protections and increased relocation assistance.
“[A Tenant Habitability Program] is still the goal and hopefully you will continue working on that until you come up with the money, but in the meantime, [these protections] could make a really big difference if incorporated with [relocation assistance,]” Kayte Deioma said.
She noted that many of her neighbors would be “saved” by the increase from a 60-day to 90-day eviction notice, and that tenant relocation funds would be “even better.”
The ordinance—which includes increased tenant relocation, data collection, civil fines and an extended 90-day eviction notice—will come back to the council in early 2022.
